The post immediately went viral on social media, with more than 22,000 likes, shares and comments as local netizens banded together to express a collective sigh of pity at the loss of one of the most valuable species of fish in Singapore.

When the post was shared by MGAG this afternoon, it was quickly followed by a complete debunking by one Javier Loke, who proceeded to break down exactly how fake news could be engineered.

Image Credit: SGAG Facebook

A simple Google search of the fried pet fish also landed me at the Instagram of one Vi Sick, where the photo had been posted 35 weeks ago. In the comments section, he also admits that he had snagged the photo from the Internet.

Image Credit: visick_mfk Instagram

While these sort of stories may not appear of much consequence, it does reflect a worrying issue – that it is way too easy to lead people by the nose with a crude cobbling together of fake news.

Fortunately, Singapore has yet to see its fake news scandals breaking out into chaos, but this does not mean that we are immune to potential fear-mongering topics, or in this case, hate-mongering ones.

If anything sounds fishy or too far-fetched to be true, it probably is.